pRSSlist by lantrix

The pRSSlist program is a Perl application for creating and maintaining RSS feeds. It is an easy to use open source authoring tool operated with a browser interface that can run locally on a computer running Mac OS X, or Linux, or accessed remotely through a web server. The product is available as Open Source software under the GNU GPLv2 license for no charge. This is a fork of ListGarden^TM v1.3.1 software from Software Garden Inc.

Why pRSSlist?

I once used the ListGarden^TM RSS generator but found it wanting in some areas. It was last updated in 2005, and I had thought to update it.

However, the easiest thing it seemed was to maintain my own copy. pRSSlist was born from a fork of v1.3.1 of ListGarden™ from Software Garden Inc.

Github is the perfect social coding platform to host pRSSlist on.

Use of pRSSlist

The guides here are over on Software Garden's homepage, and they are great starting points for using pRSSlist in it's current form.

Setting Up an RSS Feed for Podcasting
This page gives step-by-step instructions for using prsslist (in its previous incarnation known as ListGarden) to create an RSS feed for a podcast so that listeners can subscribe and automatically download new episodes when they are available. It also shows how to automatically create a companion "List of Shows" HTML page.

Adding an RSS feed to a normal website
This page gives step-by-step instructions for using prsslist (in its previous incarnation known as ListGarden) to add an RSS feed to a normal website.

Example Of A Simple Online List
This page presents an example of using prsslist (in its previous incarnation known as ListGarden) to maintain and distribute a simple list.

Storing RSS on inexpensive web server space
This page gives gives examples of storing public RSS feed files on inexpensive web server storage available through many ISPs and free web hosting communities.

Dependencies

The system requirements are: Internet connection if uploading the RSS files by FTP, 200KB+ disk space, Perl language system that includes the library modules:

LWP::UserAgent
Net::FTP
Time::Local.

Install

This section tells you how to install and run the Generic Perl Version on Unix, Linux and similar systems.

See the wiki if you want to run it on a Web Server. If you want you can also read the Installation On Mac OS X.

INTRODUCTION

The prsslist program is written in the Perl computer language. In order to run, it requires a copy of the Perl language system which is commonly found preinstalled on most Linux and similar systems, as well as on most web servers.

USING IT ON YOUR SYSTEM

Installation

Follow these instructions to install and run prsslist:

Make sure that you have Perl installed on your system. When you have Perl installed, you can run Perl programs from the command line by executing perl programfile or if you are running a web server, by serving a Perl program whose permission is set to Execute. You can check that Perl is installed and see the version information by executing the command perl -v.
Read the License Agreement to make sure that you understand the restrictions and rights that apply to this program. The source code is covered by the GNU GPLv2. The Generic Perl Version is available for free and comes with no warranty of any kind.
If you do not agree to the above license, do not download or use the program.
You may not use or copy the program except under terms of the license.
Download the Local Generic Perl Version from the Downloads page, or use git to clone the latest version by following these steps
```
git clone git://github.com/lantrix/prsslist.git
				
```
You run the program locally by extracting the download and executing the commands:
```
cd prsslist
perl prsslist.pl option values
				
```
You can get a list of options by using the "-h" option. When executing the program, you can exit before it's finished by pressing Ctrl-C.

Using the program

After you start the program running, you interact with it by accessing the URL it lists. By default, you need to open the following local URL with your browser:

http://127.0.0.1:6555

You normally quit by using the "Quit" command in the user interface.

Only the following files are needed for local execution. All others may be deleted.

prsslist.pl
prsslist.pm
prsslistLicense.pm

prsslist maintains one or more files locally to save all the feed information. By default, those files are stored in the current directory. The files are named "prefix.feed.name.txt", where "prefix" is "listdata" by default and "name" is a name you give to each feed when you create it (for example, "listdata.feed.dblog.txt"). The -d string option can be used to set a different datafile prefix than the default "listdata". The prefix may include path information to use a different directory, e.g., "~/prsslist/data/feeddata".

Troubleshooting

If the program displays an error message when run complaining about a missing module, such as LWP, or LWP::UserAgent, you can get the missing module from CPAN. Most Perl installations include the CPAN.pm module to automate this downloading process. You can seek further help to get an idea how to use CPAN.pm. CPAN.pm documentation should be available on your computer by using the command "perldoc CPAN".

Uninstall

If you want to backup your feed data, save the listdata.* files somewhere else

Delete the directory created when you extracted the download, or from when you cloned the git repository.

License

The source code of this program is made available as free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License, version 2, as published by the Free Software Foundation.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
An appropriate copyright notice will include the original Software Garden, Inc.Inc. copyright plus the pRSSlist copyright, and a prominent change notice will include a reference to Software Garden, Inc., as the originator of the code to which the changes were made.

Disclaimer
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
Original Software Creator: Software Garden, Inc. PO Box 610369 Newton Highlands, MA 02461 USA www.softwaregarden.com

Authors

Lantrix (lantrix at pobox dot com)

Contact

Any issues with the code, the quickest way to contact me it raise it in issues.

If you want to do your own thing to the code, and contribute then fork!

Download

You can download v2.0 of this project in either zip or tar formats.

You can also grab the latest code - cloning the project with Git by running:

$ git clone git://github.com/lantrix/prsslist